The Honda Point disaster was the largest peacetime loss of U.S. Navy ships. On the evening of September 8, 1923, seven destroyers, while traveling at 20 knots (37 km/h), ran aground at Honda Point (also known as Point Pedernales; the cliffs just off-shore called Devil’s Jaw), a few miles from the northern side of the Santa Barbara Channel off Point Arguello on the coast in Santa Barbara County, California. Two other ships grounded, but were able to maneuver free off the rocks. Twenty-three sailors died in the disaster.
On 8 September 1923 the US Navy lost one and a half destroyer divisions – seven ships – in a mass grounding at Honda Point, California. This peacetime disaster had few equals at the time, and still remains one of the worst such disasters in US Navy history. The ships turned east, supposedly into the Santa Barbara Channel, at 2100 hours. In reality the ships had were headed for the rocky shore due to navigational errors and unusual currents caused by the Tokyo earthquake of the previous week. The ships soon entered a thick fogbank, each vessel following the wake of the ship ahead. 5 minutes after the turn, Delphy ran ashore at 20 knots, quickly followed by other members of the squadron. The ships were total losses. They were stricken from the Register, stripped of useable equipment and sold to a scrapper for $1,035. No salvage work was done, and the ships remain where they were wrecked.
Honda Point Disaster A lean budget and distrust of new technology combined to help precipitate a naval tragedy at Honda Point, California. On an early fall night in 1923, the U.S. Navy lost more warships in ten minutes than it did to enemy action in World War I.
